Preface
Listening to the Spaces today, @BoredApeG raised the point that the Discourse is set up in a way that is potentially discouraging for brand new contributors to be able to dive right in. When I first joined, I immediately found the AIP Ideas template and excitedly proceeded to draft my first AIP proposal. I eventually withdrew it due to the fact that @ssp1111 was working on a larger-scale proposal that would effectively address what mine was aiming to accomplish (and more). We don’t know what we don’t know, and coming into this space may be overwhelming for many.
The Problem
If you’re like me, you enjoy reading AIP Ideas, working proposals, and the early General thoughts people have when putting their ideas on the page. What’s clear is that not everyone is equipped with the resources they need to best put their ideas into official, DAO-digestible form. I’ve seen many AIP Ideas that are half-baked, woefully incomplete, incoherent, or even completely redundant. Not all, by any means, but crafting an AIP is an art, and AIPs are fundamentally the lifeblood of this organization. Who knows how many quality ideas have been abandoned or never even raised in the first place? Not every idea has an effective, articulate writer behind it to bring that idea to life.
The Proposal
Here’s what I propose: under the “Help & Resources” tab here on Discourse, what if we were to create a direct-help line, a directory of experienced DAO members willing to work directly with AIP-drafters to help get their ideas out there?
In practice, this could be just a simple tab pinned just beneath the main “Help & Resources” header, called something like “Direct AIP Assistance” and within it, a list of a couple DAO members (along with their areas of experience/focus) and their contact information.
Of course, it should go without saying that I’m volunteering myself as a resource. If this is something others would be interested in putting their name in the hat for, so to speak, we could offer a robust support network for less savvy writers/contributors to have their Ideas more effectively articulated.
Pros and Cons
On the plus side, this would come at no cost to the DAO itself, as we would be leveraging our own existing resource pool. Helping contributors put their ideas into the world should be something we are all eager to actualize.
As for the downside, I’d want to be sure that the AIP Mentors (for lack of a better name) are merely helping to facilitate the vision of the AIP authors and not steer the idea in any other unintended direction. Mentors would ideally need to be familiar with AIP history and current AIP draft template protocol. I’m not clear what other downsides there would be, as Mentors would be participating voluntarily, but I leave this here for you to discuss.
Is something like this worthy of an AIP? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
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